Restaurant Guide 2011: Neighborhood Eats

Good food close to home, wherever that may be.

Shandong - IMAGE: cameronbrowne.com

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St. Johns: John Street Cafe

Between the pastel walls and abundance of
chicken breast, blue cheese and artichoke hearts on the menu, you’d be
forgiven for feeling like you’d hitched a ride back to 1993 upon
entering the John Street Cafe. But since most of St. Johns is stuck in
the late 1970s, this brunch joint feels practically modern. Fresh
vegetables abound on both the breakfast and lunch menus, and the sizable
lunch sandwiches are accompanied by either roasted potatoes or a
sweet-and-vinegary cucumber salad. You can’t go wrong with the
TAB—turkey breast, avocado and bacon on whole wheat. KAT MERCK.

8338 N Lombard St., 247-1066.

Kenton: Po’Shines

Po’Shines diverts most of its profits into training and
counseling for young adults, and everyone from the chef to your server
is volunteering his or her time to the cause. Which would, as far as
your palate is concerned, amount to a hill of red beans and rice if this
altruistic enterprise wasn’t also serving some of Portland’s best soul
food. The barbecue rib platter, a four-napkin meal for two, is a
peerless showcase, and the three crackling chicken wings and pound of
juicy pork ribs are only the beginning. You get sweet hush puppies as
well as two sides; be sure to request the greens. CHRIS STAMM.

Lucy and April Eklund’s airy Sellwood cafe offers dozens
of teas from around the world and enormous platters of Thai and
Vietnamese standards. The restaurant is unusual for the neighborhood in
that it’s cheap, reliably enjoyable and actually a pleasant place to be,
and so is usually packed. Always good are the minced chicken with mint
and cilantro, steamed hum bao with barbecued pork or curried vegetables,
sweet and spicy chili noodles and sour, crispy salt-and-pepper squid.
The Eklunds are no slouches when it comes to pastry, either. Try the
carrot cake. BEN WATERHOUSE.

No place better encapsulates Montavilla’s allegiance to
both good booze and babies like the Observatory, where a boisterous
rabble of families crowds in nearly every day of the week—Mama gets an
Amnesia IPA and Auntie sips a spicy Tom Kah cocktail made with Thai bird
chili-infused vodka while the toddlers gnaw on the addictive oregano
fry bread, served with both crème fraîche and tomato dunking sauces. But
the Observatory’s got more up its sleeve than bar food: Try the giant
chicken pâté, smoked trout salad and cheap but very well prepared steak.
KELLY CLARKE.

The site of this new Chinese restaurant in the Hollywood
district has had multiple incarnations, probably because there’s little
parking and the location is not pedestrian-friendly. Fortunately, the
latest tenant’s northern Chinese cuisine has proved enough of an
attraction that Shandong appears quite capable of outlasting its more
short-lived predecessors. The service is friendly and brisk even on a
busy night. The spring rolls are the tastiest starter on a strong list.
Must-try entrees include the spicy dry-fried calamari and black-bean
chicken. HENRY STERN.

Beijing Hot Pot is a communal affair: A
bowl of broth is placed in the center of the table over a gas burner,
and diners order various bits of raw meat, fish and vegetables to cook
in it. It’s a slow, luxurious way to eat, and the broth grows richer
with each addition. Order the spicy broth, which isn’t all that spicy,
and the combination for two (it comes with beef, pork, veggies, chicken
meatballs and handmade noodles). If you’re feeling flush, add on the
shrimp balls, which are made to order and taste astonishingly fresh,
with a nice chewy-then-crunchy texture. BEN WATERHOUSE.

Truth be told, Tani’s is no great shakes
when it comes to sushi. The fish is good, but it comes on top of too
much rice; maybe stick to sashimi or anything with eel over the
too-large rolls. Where the place excels is in the hot portion of the
menu: The grilled salmon cheek, marinated in miso, is a fatty, savory
treat; those gyoza are juicy and scaldingly hot; tempura is crisp and
not too oily; and the tonkatsu (deep-fried pork cutlet) is exactly like
what you’d get at a Tokyo lunch counter, all crispy salty chew. Don’t
skip the very good cucumber salad. BEN WATERHOUSE.

4807 SE Woodstock Blvd., 595-3500.

Milwaukie: Casa de Tamales

If there’s a little more focus on
asparagus than you’d expect from a tamale joint, there’s a good reason:
Casa de Tamales is a side project of the Canby Asparagus Farm. That
means a lot of emphasis on sourcing, fromasparagus to roasted Oregon plums and raisins in the fantastic Nicaraguan nacatamal.
In specials rotation, the Casa boasts 40 tamale varieties; last time I
was in, halibut was on the menu. Equal variety adorns the jam-packed
walls, from Alvin Ailey and Elvis posters to marlin corpses and bull
horns. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

It really says something when you order a two-piece “snack
box” and receive a 2-pound plate loaded with a fried breast the size of
a Pomeranian, three potatoes’ worth of breaded jojos and nary a speck
of color aside from brown. Ah, but that’s the beauty of this cavernous
oasis that looks like a small-town Midwestern hunting lodge and declares
all-out war on your left ventricle. Also tasty is the Pull This, a
pulled-chicken slop stuffed into a hoagie full of coleslaw and sweet
barbecue sauce. AP KRYZA.

The long trek out to Gresham to this tiny Peruvian
restaurant is worth it, especially if you arrive later in the day when
they are pulling the intensely flavored marinated chicken out of the
wood-fired rotisserie oven that dominates the room. Moist with a hint of
smokiness, the chicken elevates anything else it is served with. A
prime candidate for this honor would be El Inka’s simple but oh-so-good tacu-tacu, creamy tender pintos over white rice. BRIAN PANGANIBAN.